Dan Becker's 28mm Scale Arabic Infantry Miniatures

This article discusses 28mm scale Arabic Infantry miniatures. These are polstyrene plastic models by the company Gripping Beast which you assemble and paint. They are useful for dioramas and miniature wargaming.

Many miniature companies make miniature Arabs from the beginning Islamic period which begins in the 7th and 8th centuries, extends into the Crusades, and on to medieval times. I intended this purchase as a test to compare the size of the Gripping Beast miniatures to other companies such as Victrix and Fireforge Games.

This photo shows my entire Arabic infantry. This is not the full Arab Spearman and Archers box set (GBP04) from Gripping Beast but rather four loose sprues which I bought from eBay. Five figures per sprue make a total of 20 infantry models.

I used the optional arms and weapons to make eight archer models, eight spears, and four swords.

This photo shows the entire Arabic infantry from the right. The miniatures were done with my current usual technique of painting with contrast paints, also known as Speedpaints or Xpress paints. Then details and highlights were added with regular acrylic model paints.

This photo shows the entire Arabic infantry from the left. The figures were based atop ferrous metal washers which are decorated with gravel and static grass - the same type of scenery material used for model railroads.

This photo shows the Arabic Archers.

The archers are photographed on top of a cloth gaming mat. The background is a typical plastic photographer's backdrop. These photos are illuminated with a few LED lighting panels. The camera aperture is typically around f22, which is very small, which keeps most of the minis in sharp focus front to back. However, the exposure is around 2 or 3 seconds, which works for static miniatures, but which would cause blur on moving objects. The camera aperture can go smaller, but I still true to make the backdrop a bit blurry to keep the focus on the models.

This photo shows the Arabic Archers from the right.

This photo shows the Arabic Archers from the left.

This photo shows the Arabic Spears.

The shields are hand painted. I put Arabic slogans on the shields. The words are from English words that I translated to Arabic online. Sorry, my Arabic penmanship is rather rudimentary.

Some of the words are more serious such as "God is Great", "Faith", or "Death". Others are more humorous such as "Smile", "Happy", or "Turd!" I wonder if some Arabic readers might get a chuckle from this.

This photo shows the Arabic Spears from the right.

This photo shows the Arabic Spears from the left.

This photo shows the Arabic Swords.

I think Gripping Beast has some nice poses and nice options for these infantry miniatures. There are many heads, arms, weapons, and shields to choose. Gripping Beast also has boxed sets for Arabic light cavalry and heavy cavalry.

This photo shows the Arabic Swords from the right.

This photo shows the Arabic Swords from the left.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the photographs and descriptions of these Arab infantry miniatures. Thanks for visiting my site and browsing this article.